Defected Perfection
by WindowChild
Summary: The demigods and their families.


Percy had _always _had a good relationship with his mother. They were like the mother and son from _Karate Kid_. When he was little, Sally had been the perfect protector. She'd shielded him from all danger and conflict, allowing him to have a few ordinary years, in spite of everything else.

Once he got older, it was a little harder. She felt comfortable enough to start dating again, and it occasionally caused a riff between them. But he was always her first priority, which she'd tell him without a shadow of a doubt whenever he grew concerned. She was always on his side, no matter who else was in her life.

Percy's relationship with his father remained indefinitely undefined, even after Percy finally grew comfortable around him. Poseidon was a god after all, and even if you disregard this fact, he was not the type to throw affection at anyone. Percy and he were civil though, which was more than Percy could have dreamed when he was a child.

If you deeply analyzed it, especially compared to his friends' home lives, it was not so bad.

* * *

Annabeth was a bit of a martyr when it came to her family. It was the only area of life where was less mature than Percy, her one fantastic downfall in perspective. She couldn't help it; the picture-perfect family was the one thing she'd always wanted.

And she'd never realized that it was two inches away from her fingertips. If only she hadn't been so wrapped up in her selfish fury at her father, she might have had that chance.

He wasn't so horrible, at least from an objective point of view. He was never as cruel as she made him out to be in her mind. Her stepmother too, she was not completely malicious. She may not have had the ability to love Annabeth like her own daughter, but that is a lot to ask from someone anyway.

She should have been happier about her relationship with Athena. It was far better than most demigods', at any rate. Athena didn't despise or resent her, and was actually considerably kinder to her than most gods. Annabeth never fully appreciated it though, because it was too hard for her to imagine it another way.

Being a fully reasonable person, she allowed herself this one area of self-pity. However lucky she knew she was, she would never get over her lack of traditional parents.

* * *

Luke felt an unbelievable amount of resentment for his parents. His mother, he barely regarded any longer. She'd raised him, until she couldn't, and that's when he'd left. He hadn't spoken to her since and had never intended to, even before turning on his friends.

He _hated_ his father. Hermes never paid any attention to him, after all, and Luke could not sit with this. In Luke's mind, his entire messed up life was his father's fault, merely for being in existence. It's obviously irrational, but it was Luke's reasoning nonetheless. He used his unending blame to justify his actions, saying that none of it would have happened in the first place, if it hadn't been for Hermes's careless neglect.

Even though it was not so different from other demigods, Luke had never been one for normalcy.

* * *

Nico had only ever dreamed about his parents. He hardly remembered his real mother, and Bianca had always filled the shoes of one. He'd never had any real reason to _long_ for the parental connection, the way some half bloods did. Sometimes, he wanted it though. Adults who were taller than him, who could hold he and his sister and tell them stories. It was only a dream though, really. Most of the time, Nico was content with his life.

Finding out about his father was a surprise. An alarming one, giving all Nico knew about him. And it made him feel so… disappointed. He'd waited all his life to find the identity of his father, and it seemed like such a let down to discover that he was not a dream come true. However, Nico was too preoccupied with killing Percy to fully deal with the realization.

Yet, he still had a twisted desire to please Hades. To make his father proud of the son he wasn't supposed to have had. It was a miserable game to play, but Nico always tried to earn his father's respect.

Ironically enough, Nico had only ever felt a void about his parents after he knew he had one.

* * *

Thalia's relationship with her mother was one of stories. They fought, and most of the time Thalia really hated her. She just made things too hard. After Thalia had learned Zeus, the man of the myths, was her father, she wondered about how the two had met. To her, her mother had always seemed so incredibly anticlimactic, that she wondered what he could have possibly seen in her. Obviously it was something though, as proven by her very existence. But her mother's death was something she never got over. She'd always wondered if maybe she could have prevented it.

She'd never decided what to think of Zeus. He was a king after all, king of a sky she'd never measure up to. She was grateful though, for all he'd done. She really was, even if she occasionally wished for an ordinary father. But somewhere in her mind, there was a flicker of doubt. A whisper that she only made things worse, complicating everyone's fates and futures. She hated herself some of the time, and Zeus always got tied into the senseless loathing.

As far as Thalia concerned, she was an orphan.


End file.
